Mixed Media!!

After spending so much time working on their 8.5" x 11" Kids Kreation projects for the first quarter we loosened up and worked on larger Mixed Media pieces in the art room.  Grades 1-4 all transitioned through 5 minute centers of drawing, painting, printmaking, fibers and collage.  Everyone started with an 18" x 12" piece of paper.  They were asked to work on that one piece of paper and to continue to add on and change the piece of paper throughout the project.  They couldn't be done until the end.  The primary question was: "What more can you do?".  Each class worked on their mixed media piece for 4 class periods.  Fashion Design, Origami, Architecture, Dollmaking and many more types of art were spotted as well as the traditional painting, drawing, sculpture, printmaking and collage.  There were some amazing inventions created!

The First Quarter Plus

So it is the 2019-2020 school year at the Madison Heights Art Studio has been really busy!!  But here are some of the highlights. 
For the annual Art Fundraiser for the PTO artists created different 2D projects for each grade.

Kindergarten created Amazonian Discus Fish using a semi directed drawing approach.  They studied the shape of Discus fish and broke the fish shape down into circles, dots and some triangles and polygons.  They decorated their fish with shapes and lines and created a background for their fish from their some combination of their imagination and reference images.

1st Grade created Jaguar Masks based on the Jaguar Masks from Guerrero, Mexico.  There are annual Jaguar Parade/Dance/Fights in Guerrero.  Once students had made their masks, and before they glued them to their line backgrounds, we had a parade through the music room.

2nd Grade created Paper Collages of Molas inspired by the Molas of the Kuna People from Panama and Central And South America.  They had to create a silhouette of an animal, decorate it with marker and then use construction paper for the designs around it.

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3rd Grade Artists created paintings inspired by the Amate Bark Paintings created by Nahuatl speaking folk artists from the state of Guerrero.  They sketched flora and fauna from photos of Amate Bark Paintings and then created their own designs and drew and painted them.

4th Grade Artists learned about alebrije artists Pedro Linares and Manuel Jimenez and created their own Alebrijes through sketching and brainstorming.  They spent at least two class periods drawing from animal pictures and mixing up animals.  Once they had finalized their designs they drew and colored them in with marker.

the Last Quarter!!

So I didn't post the last quarter but the biggest thing we did in the art room at Heights was we had an all school art show!  It was such a great experience to see an art piece by each student in the school.  Here are a couple pictures.  If you are interested in seeing more go to the art show page on our website.

3rd Quarter

So much has been going on in the studio this 3rd Quarter.

Heights Kinder has been painting.  They made two paintings.  The first one was a line, shape and color painting that introduced them to painting procedures and to using tempera paint.  The second painting introduced them to watercolor procedures.  This painting was a loosely guided painting of Peach Faced Lovebirds, a type of bird that accidentally became wild in Phoenix when a few pets got loose at some point.  They are often seen around the area where our school is.

Simis Kinder also created Line/Shape and Color paintings. Kinder at both Simis and Heights also made Nighttime Drawings using Oil Pastels on Black Paper after observing artists who created pictures of the nighttime such as Arthur Dove and Vincent Van Gogh.

Simis Kinder and a few Heights Kinder also had a one day project in which they filled a jar with whatever they wanted.  This was also a drawing based assignment using marker and colored pencil.
Here are a few from Simis.

Simis Kinder also created their IB Self Portraits during the quarter.

1st Grade started off the quarter working on Mixed Up Animals with Texture.  Each class mixed up a Koala and a Bird and then from there made their own mixed up animals.  They were asked to pay particular attention to creating texture on their animals and they also colored their animals with crayons over texture plates.
Here's a bird and a lion!

Then 1st Graders started a unit on Worry Dolls.  We read the book Silly Billy and learned about how worry dolls were originated in Guatemala.  They created their own worry dolls using wooden clothespins and then were asked to create worry dolls out of available materials such as cardboard, fabric, beads, etc.  They also decorated and sewed a pouch for their worry dolls. They really flexed their creative and inventive muscles here!

2nd Graders created self portraits using sharpie marker, sharpie pen, crayon and colored pencils.  They focused on proportion of the head, observing their facial features, adding details and creating a background and clothes that expressed themselves at this time.

Right now 2nd Graders have begun a weaving project.  They have painted a paper plate and will begin weaving using the paper plate as a loom after Spring Break.

3rd Grade has been in the middle of a very extensive unit on figure drawing using the artist Keith Haring as inspiration for the work.  First, they created drawings using the game Roll-a-Haring.  They then made gestures of their fellow students and also worked on drawing people in action from photographs.  They created rough draft using the resources they had worked from plus mannequins that they could pose.  Once their rough draft was done they created paintings in tempera that were to have figures in action and an open ended narrative much like Keith Harings work.  Here is the work from Roll-a-Haring and some final paintings.

4th Graders have been working on Pop Art Paper Mache Sculptures.  They studied and observed the art work of Claes Oldenburg who used food as a subject matter for his art.  They chose a food to create a sculpture of.  They made the form of the food with newspaper and tape.  They paper mached over it with a 1:1 mixture of glue and water that strips of newsprint was dipped in and then they painted the sculptures with tempera paint.  (I will have to add in finished pictures of the paper mache after spring break)

Happy 2019!!

I have been really slow to post anything on the blog so I will post a bunch of things. 
As they year wound down 4th Graders finished an epic Color Theory/Value Study Unit in which we also learned about the artist Louise Bourgeois.  For this unit 4th Graders learned about primary, secondary and tertiary colors, created a color wheel out of colored pencil, created a value scale out of pencil and then put them together in a color wheel/value scale spider web with value scale spiders out of pencil.  For their color wheel they used primary and secondary colors "out of the tube" and mixed those colors for the tertiary colors.  For their spiders they were asked to create form out of 2D. They are beautiful pieces!! Here are a few examples and some details:

3rd Graders created Six Sided Sikulis which was a fun alternative to the typical 4 sided Sikuli's.  Sikuli is the name that the Wixaritari people call Ojo de Dios, in English: God's Eyes.  The third graders really love this project and just love weaving so much!  So many of the kids would bring in stick weavings they did at home to show me.

And then 2nd Graders studied the art of Yayoi Kusama.  She is considered by many to be the most important/popular living Contemporary Artist in the world.  We are lucky in Phoenix to have a permanent exhibit of hers, an Infinity Room, at the Phoenix Museum of Art.  2nd Graders loved learning about her. 

We are on to a lot of fun new projects right now so I will post as they come up!

Expressive Pumpkins

!st Graders created expressive pumpkins, we looked at artists who used facial expression in characters they created.  Then each first grader sketched a variety of pumpkins with expressions.  They were asked to chose the pumpkin that they wanted to turn into a large collage and then they cut out shapes proportionally to the sketch that they made and collaged them to a background that they decorated.

All of the Kids Kreations Projects by Grade

We are tying up our Kids Kreation Fundraiser Projects.  The kids put a lot of time and effort into them and it shows.
Kinder Desert Tortoises:

1st Grade Great Horned Owls

2nd Grade Ringtail Cats with Desert Landscape

3rd Grade Bobcats with Arizona Landscape

and 4th Grade Coyotes with Arizona Landscape

1st Grade Great Horned Owls

For their Kids Kreation Projects 1st Graders are creating Great Horned Owls.  They have just started finishing up.  Here are a few examples.  Such amazing line work and color choices!

Heights Butterfly and Flying Creatures Installation

All Heights Artists created symmetrical butterflies and/or flying creatures and installed them in the hall outside of the cafeteria over the last week.  This was inspired by Carlos Amorales' Black Cloud Installation at the Phoenix Museum of Art.  Heights Artists did a great job of making a really beautiful installation art piece by placing each creature very thoughtfully.

Simis Kinder Paper Line Sculptures

Simis Kindergarteners created paper line sculptures.  All of their creations were each so very different.  Very exciting to see.  Here are some examples:

Arizona Animals and Landscapes

Heights Artists are creating pieces for the PTO's annual Kids Kreations Fundraiser.  This year each grade is doing a different animal that lives in Arizona.  Kinder is doing desert tortoises, 1st: owls, 2nd: Ringtail Cats, 3rd: Bobcats, 4th: Coyotes.
Most grades are just starting color but kinder is finishing up with their desert tortoises.  And they are so colorful and alive!
Here are some examples:

Welcome Back!!

We have been back to school for a month and a half now!  Time has been really flying.  At Heights the first project Grades 1-4 created were linearly symmetrical butterflies so that we could create an installation in the hall outside of the cafeteria of butterflies and other flying creatures.  The installation is based on Carlos Amorales' installation at the Phoenix Museum of Art called, "Black Cloud".  Here are some examples of the butterflies. 

We are currently installing the butterflies.  I'll be putting pictures up of our installation.

Pop Art Paper Mache Donuts!!

4th Graders rocked their donuts.  Some of them were really big!!  All of them loved the sprinkles and puff paint.  Great job on these!